As you’re all very aware by now I like things to be clear, precise and accurate. I don’t care if it’s a quote, a set of drawings i really like my information to be clear, correct and useful.

To this end i’ve taken the previous task of building a solar power logger & now we’ve gone one step further and purchased this weather station that has arrived. The weather station itself is made by Watson and is the W-8681, It’ll will measure wind speed, direction, gusts, rain, temp, pressure and the best thing it logs it all wirelessly to a touch pad up to 300ft away so it’ll be safe inside the house. Both transmitter and receiver run on a few AA batteries that’ll last up to two years and the receiver can log up to a years data in its internal memory before requiring downloading… BRILLIANT !!!

Why?
Well i’m trying to solidify solutions for rain water harvesting, wind turbines and solar panels so the fact i don’t have to constantly be around to collect this information is fantastic. The only downside to all of this is the horrible software interface is Windows only however that’s not overly important to me once i get the data out of the thing.

I’ll be installing it the next trip out which is currently scheduled for Christmas and i’ll post some images and some initial data readings but i’ll continue to post readings when i get out on site.

Below is a quick overview of what it does and i’ve linked to an eBay search for the item if you fancy a look. If you’re a store that sells these in the UK, Europe or USA and want a link then just drop me a line.

eBay search link (UK) : http://bit.ly/w-8681

Spec Sheet

Features:

1) Touch screen panel
2) USB port for easy connectio to your PC
3) All the weather data from the base station and weather history data with user adjustable measuring intervals can be recorded and uploaded to your PC
4) Free PC software for transfer weather data to PC
5) Rainfall data (inches or millimeters): 1-hour, 24-hour,one week,one month and total since last reset.
6) Wind chill and Dew point temperature display (° for °C)
7)Records min. and max. wind chill and Dew point with time and date stamp
8) Wind speed (mph, m/s, km/h, knots, Beaufort)
9) Wind direction display with LCD compass
10) Weather forecast tendency arrow
11) Weather alarm modes for: a) Temperature b) Humidity c) Wind chill d) Dew point e) Rainfall f) Wind speed g) Air pressure h) Storm warning
12) Forecast icons based on changing barometric pressure
13) Barometric pressure (inHg or hPa) with 0.1hPa resolution
14) Wireless outdoor and indoor humidity (% RH)
15) Records min. and max. humidity with time and date stamp
16) Wireless outdoor and indoor temperature (° for °C)
17) Records min. and max. temperature with time and date stamp
18) Time and date with manual setting
19) 12 or 24-hour time display
20) Perpetual calendar
21) Time zone setting
22) Time alarm
23) High light LED backlight
24) Wall hanging or free standing
25) Synchronized instant reception
26) Low power consumption (over 2 years battery life for transmitter)
Set includes:
1) Receiver
2) Four outdoor sensors: thermo-hydro transmitter, wind speed sensor, wind direction sensor and rain sensor

Specifications:
1) Outdoor temperature range: -40.0°C to + 65.0°C (-40°F to +149°F)
2) Indoor temperature range: 0°C to + 50.0°C (32°F to +122°F)
3) Humidity range: 10% to 99% (1% resolution)
4) Rain volume display: 0 – 9999mm (show OFL if outside range) Resolution : 0.3mm (if rain volume < 1000mm) 1mm (if rain volume > 1000mm)
5) Wind speed: 0~100mph (show OFL if outside range)
6) Measuring range air pressure: 27.13inHg – 31.89inHgResolution : 0.01inHg
7) Alarm duration : 120 sec
8) Transmission range up to 100m (330 feet)
9) Power consumption: a) Receiver: 3 x AA alkaline batteries (not included) b) Sensor WH7: 2 x AA alkaline batteries (not included)
10) Transmission frequency: 433MHz,868MHz(Europe) / 915MHz (North Ameria

Update Dec 25 2009
We’ve bought this with us for Christmas and i’ve managed to install this, this afternoon. I’ll be starting the data collection shortly and will post up a write up.